Official Gmail Blog
News, tips and tricks from Google's Gmail team and friends.
Free calling within the US and Canada through 2013
December 26, 2012
Posted by Mayur Kamat, Product Manager
Many of you
call phones from Gmail
to easily connect with friends and family. If you're in the US and Canada, you'll continue to be able to make free domestic calls through 2013. Plus, in
most countries
, you can still call the rest of the world from Gmail at
insanely low rates
.
Drop in and get a call from Santa
December 18, 2012
Posted by Patrick Glover, North Pole Operator
With the big day right around the corner, activity in the
North Pole
is hitting a fever pitch. Yet, Santa will always make time to send a personalized holiday phone calls from Santa to your friends and family via his personal Google Voice line (aka
Send a Call from Santa
).
To send a message, find the
Call Center
in
Santa’s Village
. You will be prompted to answer a few fun questions, then Google Voice will do the rest! The system will create a tailored phone call from Santa himself, and send it to whomever you wish.
To get an idea of what to expect,
listen to a sample message
.
And don’t forget: If you want to keep up with Santa as he travels around the globe delivering presents on Christmas Eve, you can track his journey on
Google Maps’s Santa Tracker
.
Happy holidays from all of us at Google!
Get the whole family together over the holidays, from anywhere
December 18, 2012
Posted by Kevin Maguire, Product Marketing Manager
‘Tis the season for tree trimming, gift giving, recipe sharing and catching up with loved ones over a cup of eggnog. For families that are spread out over cities or even countries, it can be a challenge to get everyone together during the holidays. This year, we’ve teamed up with the creators of
Wallace and Gromit
to add a little extra holiday magic to Google+ Hangouts with a custom invitation builder and a Holiday Effects app.
Click this link
to schedule your holiday family hangout and we’ll send all your invitations out with a custom Wallace and Gromit video. Since hangouts let up to 10 people video chat at once, right from
Google+
or
Gmail
, you can invite the whole family to join---and maybe a few friends too!
Don’t forget to put on a Santa hat, reindeer antlers or even wear Gromit’s ears by adding the
Holiday Effects
app to your family hangout.
Happy holidays from the Google+ and Gmail teams!
(Cross-posted on the
Official Google Blog
)
The Gmail app for iPhone and iPad: version 2.0
December 4, 2012
Posted by Matthew Izatt, Product Manager
Six months ago, our team set out to completely rebuild the Gmail app for iPhone and iPad to give you you a faster, sleeker, and easier experience on iOS. The result?
Version 2.0
. With version 2.0 of the app, you'll get a totally new look and feel, plus a bunch of improvements like profile pictures in messages, numerous new animations from swivels to transitions and infinite scrolling in the message lists.
The app also adds many new time-saving features. For example, when you search, autocomplete predictions will appear as you type, shaving off precious seconds (and typos). Plus, you can RSVP to Google Calendar invites as well as +1 and comment on Google+ posts directly from the app.
Last, but certainly not least, we've added a feature many of you have been waiting for: multiple account support. You can now login to up to five Google Accounts from the menu and switch between them with a couple taps.
You can download the app right now from the
App Store
. We're excited to hear what you think!
Gmail and Drive - a new way to send files
November 27, 2012
Posted by Phil Sharp, Product Manager
Since Google Drive launched in April, millions of people have started using Drive to keep, create and share files. Starting today, it’s even easier to share with others: you can insert files from Drive directly into an email without leaving your Gmail.
Have you ever tried to attach a file to an email only to find out it's too large to send? Now with Drive, you can insert files
up to 10GB
-- 400 times larger than what you can send as a traditional attachment. Also, because you’re sending a file stored in the cloud, all your recipients will have access to the same, most-up-to-date version.
Like a smart assistant, Gmail will also double-check that your recipients all have access to any files you’re sending. This works like Gmail’s
forgotten attachment detector
: whenever you send a file from Drive that isn’t shared with everyone, you’ll be prompted with the option to change the file’s sharing settings without leaving your email. It’ll even work with Drive links pasted directly into emails.
So whether it’s photos from your recent camping trip, video footage from your brother’s wedding, or a presentation to your boss, all your stuff is easy to find and easy to share with Drive and Gmail. To get started, just click on the Drive icon while you're composing a message. Note that this feature is rolling out over the next few days and is only available with
Gmail's new compose experience
, so you'll need to opt-in if you haven't already.
ᎭᎴᎾ ᏗᏓᏴᎳᏛᏍᎩ ᎬᏗ Gmail ᏣᎳᎩ (Get started with Gmail in Cherokee)
November 19, 2012
Posted by Craig Cornelius (ᏇᎩ), Software Engineer
What happens when you put a Google engineer in a car with a member of the Cherokee Nation? Well, something we think is pretty amazing: Gmail in Cherokee, or
ᏣᎳᎩ
(
pronounced "jaw la gee"
),
Gmail’s 57th language
.
It was just coincidence that I, a Google engineer working on the internationalization of Google products, ended up carpooling back to San Francisco with Vance Blackfox, member of the Cherokee Nation (CN) from an event we’d both attended. But that coincidence kick-started a collaboration that would result in
Google Web Search
in Cherokee and, starting today, Gmail in Cherokee.
After a
2002 survey
of the Oklahoma Cherokee population found that no one under 40 spoke conversational Cherokee, the Cherokee Nation saw an opportunity to use technology to encourage everyday use of the language among the younger generation. Vance connected me with the language technology department at the Cherokee Nation, and the Gmail team worked closely with their highly organized team of volunteers, which ranged from university students to Durbin Feeling--Cherokee living treasure and author of the
Cherokee-English Dictionary
. Together, we were able to find and implement the right words for hundreds of Gmail terms, from "inbox" (ᎧᏁᏌᎢᏱ) and “sign in” (ᏕᏣᏙᎥ ᎰᏪᎸᎦ) to “spam” (ᎤᏲᎢ).
Gmail in Cherokee and the Cherokee version of Google Web Search both include a
virtual keyboard
for typing the syllabary writing system invented by
Sequoyah
in the early 1800s. Now Cherokee students can easily contact their tribal elders, e.g., “Joseph wants to chat” (“ᏦᏏᏫ ᎤᏚᎵ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ”) and connect instantly. As Joseph Erb, Language Technologist at the Cherokee Nation put it, “Projects like these give more life to our language in our communities. It is not just about preserving our language and culture. It is about using our language each day and every day and continuing who we are as a people. And this give us that chance each time we check our email.”
So if you speak Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ) or know someone who does - or if you are just interested in learning more, you can switch to Cherokee in
Settings
.
Search for emails by size and more in Gmail
November 14, 2012
Posted by Christian Kurmann, Software Engineer
We're always looking for ways to make it faster and easier for you to find your messages using search in Gmail. So starting today, you can now search emails by size, more flexible date options, exact match and
more
.
This means, for example, to find emails larger than 5MB, you can search for
size:5m
or
larger:5m
or to find emails sent over a year ago,
older_than:1y
.
These changes go hand in hand with other recent enhancements to search such as the
improved autocomplete predictions
and a field trial for
instant results from Gmail, Google Drive and more as you type
.
Introducing the new compose in Gmail
October 30, 2012
Posted by Phil Sharp, Product Manager
We're always trying to make Gmail faster and easier to use, so today we're introducing a completely redesigned compose and reply experience that does just that.
Faster
How many times have you been writing an email and had to reference something in another message? Saving a draft, opening the old email, and then reopening your draft wastes valuable minutes. The new compose pops up in a window, just like chats (only larger).
This makes it easy to reference any other emails without ever having to close your draft. You can even do a search or keep an eye on new mail as it comes in. And because the compose window works the same way as chats, you can write multiple messages at once and minimize a message to finish it later.
Easier to use
The new compose is designed to let you focus on what's important: your message. The controls are still there when you need them but get out of the way when you don’t. We’ve even added some new features like the ability to easily insert inline images and have more to come.
And, when you add recipients to your message, you'll see profile pictures of your contacts in autocomplete helping you find the right person faster. You can also drag and drop the new address chips between to:, cc: and bcc:. When you’re done adding recipients, the address area collapses automatically to get out of your way.
You’ll also see these same changes when you respond to a message. The reply experience has been designed to fit better inline as part of your conversation -- replies take up much less vertical height, intelligently expand to fit your content, and always keep the recipients and other controls in view no matter how long your message gets.
We're rolling out a preview of the new compose and reply today. After we've added some
finishing touches
over the coming months, we’ll enable it for everyone.
Bringing Google Calendar to the Play Store
October 17, 2012
Posted by Michael Chan, Tech Lead
Previously available only on select Android devices like Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, you can now download the official Google Calendar app for Android from Google Play. Google Calendar makes it easy for you to
manage all your calendars
in one place, including those from your Google accounts and other calendars synced to your Android device.
Beyond supporting the basics such as creating, editing, deleting events and responding to invitations, the new Google Calendar app has extra features that help you manage your time and communication more easily:
Snooze events directly from a notification if you’re not quite ready and want to be reminded later.
Use predefined messages to send quick "I'll be late" updates to your event participants directly from the notifications or the event itself (of course, you can always write your own).
Pinch to zoom in and out of a day.
Set a home time zone to help you manage your time better when traveling.
In addition, we also expanded the sync period so you can review past events from up to one year ago directly on your device. Download Google Calendar on
Google Play
today for devices running Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3+) or Jellybean. Use the Google Feedback feature in the app to let us know how we can make Calendar work better for you!
(Cross-posted on the
Official Android Blog
)
Find your stuff faster in Gmail and Search
October 15, 2012
Posted by Bram Moolenaar, Software Engineer
When you’re looking for something, you should be able to find what you need quickly and easily without needing to think about where it might be, whether it's in your email or out on the public web. That’s why this past August we
opened a field trial
allowing you to sign up to get information from Gmail right from the Google search box.
We’ve gotten very positive feedback from those of you testing it out -- such as this note: “
The Gmail results feature is awesome! The fact that it's all integrated into one screen is huge.
” Many testers have requested being able to find Drive files as well -- as one of you put it, “
It would be awesome if I could search my google drive from google search as well :)
”.
So starting today, you can sign up for a new and expanded field trial that makes it easier to find your stuff across Google, whether you’re searching on Google.com or searching in Gmail.
In Gmail, as you begin to type into the search box, you'll instantly start seeing relevant emails from Gmail as well as results from Google Drive, Google Calendar, and more:
Similarly, when you search on Google.com, your results will include relevant information and messages from Gmail (something familiar to those who joined the original field trial) and now -- new in this field trial -- also files, documents, spreadsheets and more from Google Drive:
To give this a try, please visit the updated
field trial
page and select
Join the field trial
. Please note that this trial is only accessible in English and for @gmail.com addresses (not available on Google Apps accounts). And keep the feedback coming!
(Cross-posted on the
Inside Search Blog
)
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